Category: Sports

Danny Garcia Stops Adrian Granados … Terence Crawford Stops Amir Khan

On Saturday night, while Terrence Crawford was preparing to enter the ring against Amir Khan, Danny Garcia had already put on a show by pounding Adrian Granados, a tough fighter who never been stopped and came into the fight with a reputation as a pressure fighter who threw punches in bunches.  First round saw Granados do what he does best, box and then move forward while throwing volume of punches, winning the first round on my card.

Second round saw the fight turn badly for Granados as halfway through the round, Garcia threw the short left hook that sent Granados down.  Garcia continued to press the action as Granados looked wobbly.  With seconds left in the round, Garcia launched a right hand that sent Granados down.  Garcia dominated the action in both the third and fourth round as he pressured Granados and throwing the most accurate punches.  Granados was not throwing punches in bunches but fought in survival mode as he moved away from Garcia. 

Garcia sent Granados a third time in the fifth round and Granados’ corner was ready to pull the plug after the round as Garcia was chopping Granados apart.  Granados changed strategy  in the sixth round and for the first two minutes,  he crowded Garcia to minimize Garcia power but Garcia adjusted as he moved a couple of steps back to give him enough space to counter.  Over last minute, Garcia nailed Granados with several big shots and there was very doubt how this fight was going.  The Fox team had the scorecard 50-42 and I had it 49-43 so there was no real doubt about the scoring.

Garcia ended the fight in the seventh round as he trapped Granados, landing with a big shots before Referee stopped the fight.  This was the best I have seen Garcia in a long time and he sent a message to the rest of the division that he is back and ready to rumble with the best of the  division.

The Welterweight is loaded at the top beginning with Terrance Crawford who simply dominated Amir Khan.  (David Martinez, which my blogs appear on dmboxing, told me prior to the fight that he saw this as a one sided affair and he was certainly right.)  Crawford easy victory now opens up Welterweight for a semi play-off where the best started fighting each other.  Thurman, Porter, Garcia, Spence, Crawford are all excellent fighters and then there is Pacquiao whose at 40 still provides big dollar potential for those willing to fight him.

As for Crawford, more print was spent on the ending in which Khan corner essentially threw in the towel while he was recovering from an accidental low blow but Crawford was headed for a victory and Khan’s corner knew that.

And, Garcia sent his own message that he is a contender ready to capture his title back and there is enough talent to have some great fights if promoters allow those fights to happen. 

Alvarez wins over Jacobs

Daniel Jacobs did what he normally does in the big fight vs the best of his division, he came up short.  Jacobs is one of those fighters one can easily admire, a man who conquered cancer  but he has yet to conquer the two elite fighters of his generation in Middleweight division, Canelo Alvarez and the triple G’s.

Compubox numbers show the story accurately.  Jacobs threw nearly 200 punches more than Alvarez but landed nearly sixty less punches as Alvarez connected on two out of every five punches compared to Jacobs who connected only one out of five punches.   Over the last half of the fight Alvarez averaged 20 punches connected per round versus 13 punches per round for Jacobs.  Alvarez connected more jobs and power shots in particular body shots. 

Alvarez had a more diverse attack throughout the bout and showed more flexibility in his punches thrown. 

The early rounds were slow but what actions was dictated by Alvarez but over the second half of the fight saw both fighters have their moment.  In the tenth round, Jacobs became the aggressor as he pushed Alvarez to the ropes but over the course of the round, Alvarez countered back and seemed unfazed by Jacobs aggressiveness. Canelo Alvarez resumed the role of aggressor in the eleventh round, but Jacobs went toe to toe as he landed his left to Alvarez’s body. Alvarez landed solid rights back and the final round saw Jacobs slip to the canvas while throwing a wild punch.  Both fighters landed combinations with Jacob starting with body shots before moving up to Alvarez’s head, while Alvarez landed enough of his own combinations to win the round in my view. 

The judges had the fight 115-113, 115-113, and 116-112, which was an accurate view of the fight. I had the fight 116-112 but 115-113 for Alvarez was a reasonable score. 

We had a fight that was correctly scored for the winner with no controversy and while Jacobs had his moments, Alvarez was the better fighter.  His defensive skills allowed him to slip many of Jacobs punches while effective jabbing set up combinations.  Jacobs could not land consistently as Alvarez simply moved quickly out of range.

The question is what next and maybe what is next could be a third Golovkin-Alvarez fight. While Alvarez has one win and a draw against triple G’s, many boxing observers viewed the first draw as a Golovkin win and it could easily be two wins for Golovkin. Both fights were close affairs and worth a third bout.  As for Jacobs, he has lost two bouts to both fighters and while one could see a second triple G’s-Jacobs or a second Jacobs-Alvarez but while both bouts would be entertaining, does anyone expect the results to be different?  I don’t.  A third Golovkin-Alvarez may be what the Middleweight division needs. 

Boxing: Kovalev Wins

By Tom Donelson / Author, Member Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) … contributor to dmboxing since 2008

Sergey Kovalev recaptured his WBO Light heavyweight title from Eleider Alvarez, who previously knocked the Russian light heavyweight down to win the title.  He managed to revenge only the second person who defeated him and did so in dominating form.  Kovalev began by winning the first two rounds, connecting on combinations while Alvarez slow in starting . 

In the fifth round, Kovalev looked in control but in the sixth, Alvarez got the better of exchanges with his right hand but the rest of the fight, it was Kovalev who looked strong and in the last round, Alvarez looked tired as he took big punches.  The key punch was a big right hand that nailed Kovalev in the sixth round, but Kovalev didn’t budge or appeared hurt. From that point, Kovalev took over the fight and won it easily.

The Compubox numbers tell the whole story as he connected on the double the punches, was consistently more active.  Kovalev landed 213 punches over those twelve rounds, whereas Alvarez landed only 111, less than 10 per round.

I had the fight 58 to 56 going to the second half and Andre Ward of ESPN had it 59 to 55.  The seventh round saw Kovalev pound Alvarez throughout the round and the rest of the fight was not much different.  Kovalev not only took control of the fight, he dominated every aspect of the fight as he jabbed and box effectively while landing solid body punches.  Alvarez simply couldn’t gain any momentum in the second half of the fight as Kovalev moved in with body shots before moving out boxing with effective jabs.  Alvarez rarely connected on a right hand and that was why Kovalev easily won. There was only one round that Alvarez landed more punches and that was eleven.  I gave the third and the sixth round due to Alvarez landed some big rights but those rounds could easily been given to Kovalev. While two judges had 116-112, this fight could have ranged from 117-111 to 120-108 in my view. I simply couldn’t find four rounds to even give Alvarez. 

Oscar Valdez came back from an 11 months respite from the ring and pounded Carmine Tommasone from the first round.  Tommasone landed jabs after jab to keep Valdez and for the first three rounds, Valdez looked rusty and missed many shots but Tommasone simply couldn’t hurt him.  In the fourth, two knockdown, one from a counter right and another from left hook to the body.

Tommasone nose was bleeding due to the hard punching Valdez and it was obvious that Tommasone was not going to have the power to make Valdez fear him.  Valdez simply continue the assault as he sent Tommasone down the sixth before ending it with a right hand uppercut.

As the fight continued, Valdez rust went away and connected with more accurate punches.  Tommasone undefeated record went up in smoke and Valdez won his 25 fight without a loss plus he kept his version, the WBO featherweight title.

Charlo fights at the Barclay plus a few surprises by Tom Donelson

Boxing is the theater of the unexpected and one of the most unpredictable thing to predict is how a judge will view a fight.  Jermell Charlo/Tony Harrison fight was one of those fights that many of us watching the fight saw Charlo the winner but the judges had it for Tony Harrison.  Charlo was the aggressor throughout the fight and landed an average of three punches more per round and I had him up by117-111.  While much of the audience were stunned, Charlo allowed Harrison to stay in the fight.  He never dominated the fight as the favorite he was and while he stunned Harrison in the last round, he could not finish off Harrison.  Compubox saw that Charlo landed more punches in 9 of the 12 rounds but many of these rounds were close and decided by a punch or two so we saw many close rounds, very similar to the Fury-Wilder fight in which there were many close rounds. The difference in the Charlo-Harrison fight was that Charlo never had Harrison in trouble until the twelve whereas in the Fury –Wilder fight, Wilder twice nearly stopped the bout but for the ability of Fury to remained standing against two very brutal knockdown that would have stopped most fighters.

Jermell Charlo may have shown that he would certainly be an underdog against Jarrett Hurd, who is probably the best Super Welterweight in the world and who stopped Harrison when they both fought.  Charlo fought a tactical fight and while he was the aggressor, Harrison did effective counterpunching at selected times in the fight.  In my view, there were four rounds easy to score but there were eight rounds that were close as Compubox numbers attest.  The judges gave most of those rounds to Harrison and they were more impressed with Harrison’s counter punching than Charlo aggressive tactics. 

Dominic Breazeale scored a one-punch knockout of Carlos Negron in the ninth round of an entertaining heavyweight bout. Breazeale, with his eyes on Wilder’s belt and with Wilder in the audience watching, was hoping to make a statement.  While Breazeale dominated most of the fight, it was not an easy fight as Negron landed a few solid shots of his own as a counter puncher.  Breazeale nearly ended the bout at the end of the fourth round when he landed a big right as the bell ended the round, but in the fifth and throughout the sixth, Negron came back with counterpunches of his own and gave himself a chance at an upset.  Breazeale finally got control of the bout in the seventh round as his strength took hold and in the ninth, he ended with one big right hand.

Breazeale went on to challenge Wilder after the fight for a shot at his title but we won’t know whether Wilder will give him that shot or look for a bout with Anthony Joshua or rematch with Tyson Fury.  Regardless, Breazeale got himself in line for a title shot but right now, the heavyweight has a logjam as Fury draw with Wilder has produced a three way jam at the top with Fury established as a legitimate threat to Joshua-Wilder reign as the best heavyweight and Dillion Whyte late stoppage of Dereck Chisora puts him in the conversation as a title contender, maybe in front of Breazeale.

For the main event, Jermall Charlo came out defending his interim Middleweight title against Russian Matt Korobov, who gave a good account of himself.  Charlo looked more like a fighter who wanted to revenge his twin brother’s defeat than a fighter who needed to fight a more smarter fight against a canny opponent.  Korobov counterpunch effectively out of his southpaw stance and throughout the first half of the fight, Charlo looked puzzled as he kept getting nailed with straight lefts.  At the halfway mark, I had the fight four rounds to two in favor of Korobov and wasn’t until the sixth round that he started to connect with solids straight right against Korobov and I had him winning six of the last seven rounds as he certainly lost most of the early rounds.

It was until the last round did Charlo get Korobov in trouble as he nailed Korobov with big shots repeatedly but Korobov refused to go down.  I had this fight 115-113 for Charlo and while the judges agreed that Charlo won the fight, they had a bigger spread and I couldn’t understand the 119-108 score at all.  There was no way that Korobov won only one round and Charlo got credit for a 10-8 round on that card.  The other cards were reasonable at 116-112. 

Charlo fought a poor first half of the fight but adjusted over the second half but is he ready for Alvarez, who is the present king of the Middleweight or triple G’s? Based on this fight, I would even rate Danny Jacob a slight favorite.

Colin, Josh and Jay

I mention that the offense that the Redskins ran in the fourth quarter with Josh Jackson would be no different with Colin Kaepernick, except that Colin is a better quarterback. The kicker is that Washington is still in the playoff hunt, just behind the Eagles, Panthers and Vikings.  If the Redskins win all their remaining games and Vikings lose one, they are in.  They play the Jaguars, Titans and Eagles who may be without their number one quarterback in Wentz.  All winable games.

My view is that Colin should play and have stated this on the Batchelor pad with LA Batchelor and while I may not like his politics but we witnessed a running back for the Chiefs who played for nearly three quarter of the season even though the NFL knew that he had beaten his girlfriend in February.  So the NFL doesn’t look so good now but then Roger Goddell in my view is the worse commissioner of any major league but that is debate for another time.

For Jay Gruden, he has been hit with sever injuries bug so there are things out of his control but one thing in his control is the daily lineup and when you pick Mark Sanchez over  Colin, that is on you.  Gruden has one last chance to save his job and we will see what he will do with that gift.